The Dead - Deathsteps To Oblivion

Note: Physical CDs will only be released on November 14. This review was done based on a Digital Promo from Transcending Obscurity.

For a genre that is commonly known for challenging rules and convention of music, the fan base for Metal has been very strict in what can be mixed and could not. There are many genre purists who become very vocal of what is not permitted (such as that in Black Metal) and some are implied just out of scene associations (like Death Metal).


In fact, one may joke that the fan base is the most irate rule-obsessed group of fan boys ever. However, all of that is understandable. This whole elitist attitude is a reactive measure towards the encroachment of other influences into the genre that may not be in line of the vision of what its creators seek. It is a culture that a group of young people created and decided to call their own.


To have another person to steal that tag and appropriate it for themselves was blasphemy of the highest order. But what happens when you have a scene that has pre-internet, relatively been isolated to the rest of the world? Their only window to that scene is probably through the tapes they traded across the specific and publications could possibly several months late.


They may have an understanding through reading zines about the respect people have for the purity of genres but they also don’t have the same form of emotional attachment with those who grew up the scene.


Enter, Australia. Implied genre conventions don’t carry the same weight here and Australia’s The Dead pays respect to their American counterparts, but blurs the rules. While Sludge Metal has been an active effort to stay the opposite spectrum of Death Metal, The Dead combines the two while maintaining the characteristics of both subcultures.

This is the happiest band promo photo ever in the history of this blog.

The Dead’s willingness to combine 2 sides of the coin of Metal, is like combining water and dirt; while those two components are easily distinguishable from the other, but the two combine to become mud. That is how The Dead works.


What are two distinct genres becomes into one puddle of filth, with an excess of Sludge, making it the thickest mud pool you have to walk through. From the beginning the guitars are deep down heavy, that reminiscent of the thickest and heaviest doom-laden Sludge riff you can imagine. This is like taking Eyehategod out of New Orleans, and the blues is replaced with an Old School Death Metal layer.


While mentioning Sludge could conjure images of breakdowns into a listener’s mind; this album won’t be filled with the continuous interjection of long dragging depressive breakdown. The riffs resemble a darker Isis with an emphasis of evil sounding melody. While one guitar lays the groundwork and team up with the bass player, the lead guitars create the tinge melody.


It’s like the subtle after taste of flavoured vodka. The thick punch of the alcohol wakes you up but the subtle fuzzy after taste lingers in your throat. They don’t become the dominant flavour but it reminds you it is there. It’s the same with leads here. It never becomes the overpowering narrative that one might expect from say, a thrash album when a solo is about to come in.


Here, the leads follows the main riff on a higher pitch, as the riffs come crawling to you slowly. There are no abrupt changes in speed here, but dirge laden mid-paced riffs. One could say that these guys didn’t read the memo that Death Metal learned to run a long time ago and still stayed at the same pace the slow parts of what Obituary had in 1990.


Despite the Sludge connotations, vocals in no way are like your average Sludge band with Hardcore screams. While they didn’t get the memo on Death Metal’s speed the bad definitely get the memo for deep guttural voices. The vocals could easily work even in a Grindcore context. The drums come pounding in at an appropriate pace, like a riflemen firing at the orders of his official.


Organized and only fired when necessary. While on most parts the drum just plays to keep the flow of the soing going in, it does not mean the band is afraid to play around with percussions. On the track Terminus, watch out for tribal sounding drums and an intro session where one could recall rituals of native Indian tribes, giving off an exotic and trippy vibe.

 I am pretty sure, there is somebody in the crowd that is insisting that they play faster.

However, most of the points this band gets is the creative song writing capabilities. None of the band members get into a spotlight and do their magic but the band worked together to actually create a composition. Every single line has a deliberate method.


At times it is to create a melodic lead or everyone slowing down (after the already slow verse) in the bridge and just mesmerize us into a dark prog-like atmosphere that you could lay back too, then they start to assault your ears again as they step onto the distortion pedal. This has created what should very well be something that is unconventional feels acceptable in this album. (Well, at least in Metal-terms.)


An amazing part of this album and probably the highlight track is during “The God Beyond” where the track starts off with a short (and surprising) Black Metal part, the only “fast” part of the album but the goes into a long droning Atmospheric Sludge Metal guitar melody. Right somewhere in the middle, a weird sound in the background appears to add another layer of hauntingly beautiful melody.


It could be a woman wailing or some weird instrument accompanying the band but that element turned the track into a Sludge Metal, almost Post-Rock equivalent of Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”. In fact, the whole album does sound like Pink Floyd trying their hand at Sludge/Death and like the Dark Side of The Moon, needs to be listened as a whole to get the whole experience. Every track is weaved into each other but you can still feel where does one start and where does one end.

At the end of the day, what this band embodies is the ability to smash convention and demonstrate to us what happens when you turn around the genre conventions many in the culture grew up with. Not only it breaks down barriers of the genres but it also shatters the image on how Death Metal can be carried. Unlike how most bands go on the mantra, faster is better for Death Metal, this band does the opposite but still sound Death Metal. Like how the isolation of Australia lead to the unique evolution of its animal inhabitants,


Australia has benefited from the mindset of these metalheads from down under. In fact, I would say this is the most exotic sounding album I've heard all year. This is a Isis, Death Metal and Pink Floyd rolled into one.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lordofthelivingdead
Bandcamp: https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/album/deathsteps-to-oblivion-death-metal-sludge

Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.